The Devil's Work, Campaign Diary

[@mcolville]

What happens to Lady Orozivaar after the Chain deliver her to the Sapphire Sky. www.patreon.com/posts/lady-orozivaar-29149126

[@oribennett6520]

Oh....

[@squibsays]

mat real talk, this multi media stuff is really cool. Its like reading a dynamic book.

[@jekkareznikov9769]

Hi Matt, I think you are incorrect in your statement that "Players skills are not mind control" - You have made the player roll persuasion in the first place meaning that there should have been an outcome of the dice where the NPC changes her mind. If no matter what the player would've said would've made any difference.... Why did you make the player roll in the first place? If the outcome of the dice makes no difference, it would be best not make the player roll in the first place

[@andrewlittleton4690]

@@jekkareznikov9769 the success of his roll was she was convinced not to fight. They had just threatened her life and she was already the type of character that would fight to the death no matter the odds

[@alexigiusti9700]

Lady Orizivaar may not have been swayed by King, but a celestial and elder gem dragon may be more convincing.

[@targon749]

The thing I like about the campaign diaries is that I really enjoy following your adventure, but I don't have time to watch 3-4 hours of D&D, AND I learn a lot about DMing from them. Thanks Matt!

[@mattclayton6917]

This. 100% this. Can't tell you how much I love/learn from/appreciate these videos. My 16 and 19 yr old sons (who both DM) tear into this stuff like xorns through rock and it's pure joy to watch them watch. Thanks Matt and ALL at MCDM and those of The Chain.🖤

[@ariaflame-au]

I have trouble watching because of work but finding the podcast good for in transit

[@dittmar104]

You can watch it at 1.5 speed

[@targon749]

@@dittmar104 I miss half of what's going on in normal speed so I think I'll not do that, but thanks!

[@Lurklen]

One of my favorite Copper lines happened this session: "We need you--well we need your ring, but you can come too." pretty snappy for a little goblin(I find Tom is pretty quiet at the table, but he gets some really good lines in once in a while).

[@aarondavis7391]

Tom is quite but on point!

[@LizardBacon16]

My favorite was when they went to the Library on The Pellet and he says, "Wait, this isn't the opera!"

[@zenoking5958]

Matt Coville: I have found the no win scenario Slim: There is no such thing as the no win scenario

[@AuthorReborn]

The only no win scenario is a no Slim scenario.

[@maledictita]

Slim would beat the Kobayashi Maru.

[@Xsuh]

Frankly, I would call for a vote of no confidence on King if I were Judge. King's loyalties are inherently split as a cleric, and they can't know for sure he will always do what is best for The Chain if it conflicts with his religion. King is right not to trust Judge with anything that powerful for the same reason - his loyalties are split between The Chain and Asmodeus.

[@redmadhatter03]

#Nailsforpresident

[@Shane-The-Pain]

BINGO!

[@eldenwarden9673]

Hi Matt! I just recently ran my first session as a DM, and your "running the game" videos were critical to my success. I used my own setting, and my players loved it. Thank you for being a guiding light for us aspiring dungeon masters.

[@DungeonClass]

Hey Congrats on your first session. Hope you had fun cuz they only get better from here as your group gets more cohesive. Excelsior!

[@JPBennett]

There was another option that nobody explored. King could have asked to accompany her to talk to her "bosses" directly. I wonder how you would have handled that one.

[@aarondavis7391]

The church would have tried to forcibly take control of the operation...

[@Josmungard]

It has always been clear how much dedication and care the whole MCDM crew puts in their products. If the Campaign Diaries output has taken over for a time, it gets me even more excited, for that means you're taking your time to cook something real nice. And while it's still in production, the Chain is more than enough to geek about. Thank you!

[@hophale7497]

I LOVE the campaign diaries so I don’t mind them taking over the channel.

[@briansanderz9024]

I love some of the quotes i can get from Matt. "I could dominate her with Rod" and "Buts explodes" Thank you as always Matt. I am really enjoying these after the fact run downs. Hearing what the GM thought about afterward is the best part of DND sometimes

[@Alaplaya9]

I think the first few minutes are a step-by-step of a lesson every dungeon master has to learn at some point: "There are scenarios in which it is not feasible for a character to succeed at a given task, no matter the result of their roll." In such a circumstance one should never let the player roll, because after all, the result doesn't matter. I've had this once, where a character was trying to overcome an obstacle through sheer might and despite being quite strong and rolling a natural 20, I ruled it as a failure. That produced a lot of bad feelings and I think if Matt had simply not allowed Lars to roll, Lars (and the rest of the players in that moment) would have been less frustrated.

[@RPanda3S]

Yes.

[@gossamera4665]

I suppose when a critical fail could make it interesting, or any fail, but if it doesn't produce any result other than potentially a negative one then yes.

[@gossamera4665]

Although, the GM directly telling the players what is and isn't possible could be argued to be immersion breaking. A fail isn't a fail until it fails in that sense.

[@alexigiusti9700]

It's always important to remind them, if they insist on rolling, that the DC is a meassure of difficulty. Sure they can roll but they have to roll high enough. Also things shouldn't be arbitrarily impossible. You need to be able to demonstrate why it's unfeasible.

[@Alaplaya9]

@@gossamera4665 More immersion breaking than taking out a polyhedron from your bag and rolling it in combination with some simple math to determine whether your character succeeds or fails at a given task?

[@Theraot]

Sometimes a DM has to separate persuation from Jedi mind tricks

[@DungeonClass]

So true, though I tend to use The Force on my most distracting players a little too often. Lol

[@hitomisalazar4073]

Heck sometimes they have to separate the Jedi Mind Tricks from the Jedi Mind Tricks. I kept running into players treating first level Charm Person as if it were Dominate or Command. "What, they're my friend now!". "What, do your friends just always blindly do what you say?"

[@dirk_gently]

Last game was great. Intrigue is just as fun as combat - keep up the great work!

[@thothrax5621]

Quick alert for people who are watching all the campaign diaries in row with the playlist: If this sounds like a weird jump, you may have missed Campaign Diary 22/23 (which is one video) that does not seem to be present in the playlist; a quick search will fix it

[@jakecassar6554]

Jade door broken? Jade hand with Ajax? What a coincedence...

[@Hazel-xl8in]

think you slightly switched the order of stuff, copper didn’t go get marcellus scipio until the morning, boots met with him at night

[@MrJerajera]

Yea that made me supper confused

[@ceres090]

The Mind Killer is a Yeerk! That took me right back to my days reading Animorphs.

[@hive_indicator318]

I just reread the Lady Orozivaar pdf. It gave me goosebumps AGAIN. Gotta love that hardboiled dialogue.

[@joebaker1]

I love the fact that the players found a way to maintain a kind of plausible deniability. "Your Knight is missing? We haven't seen her..."

[@bagamer13]

Awesome diary! Glad you addressed the Faerie Fire issue. Pumped for tonight!

[@noahtheslowa6915]

These videos have so much valuable DM wisdom, almost more than some of the Running the Game videos because it also presents the contextualization of methods behind the screen at the same time. Thank you Matt!!!!

[@Drendude]

I love the campaign diaries a lot more than I think I would enjoy watching the game itself. I love hearing your state of mind about the game and how you interpret your players' actions. I'm not a big fan of listening to people roll dice and argue about things. I would probably keep track of a lot more of the D&D streams if they all had diaries like this.

[@Gonziboss]

Man, I don't know if im crazy for not only watching the livestream but also the campaign dairy. Thanks for the video!

[@hishammor8490]

Perfectly normal, then playlisting the running the game videos. Nothing crazy about this at all. I'M NOT CRAZY!!!

[@pabloagurciaart]

Same 🥴

[@CptnJaymz]

If it has Matt Coville on it, I watch it. All of it is good!

[@CarlBlomgren]

I don't think I'll express this well, but this was exciting and interesting to me, so I'll try to express the feeling after watching previous videos and getting to this one. I've never had an example of what a healthy player or dm looks like, let alone in the breadth of topics covered. I've had many failures as a dm, player, and person in general that contributed to stopping playing with different friends. I think part of the reason was that I couldn't see the context of what I was enjoying in gaming in general. It's neat to see a dm have a clear understanding of a character, have an assumption of the way something will go, and then be able to pivot away to things that are great stories while maintaining consistency to the characters involved. I don't have the skill to do it, but seeing examples is challenging/training. To become skilled, a person who's not naturally gifted in an area needs clear examples of good technique and coaching. This is such good stuff Matt. I appreciate the time and effort that you put into this. I've enjoyed the other things you've done (e.g. movie dissection) as well; hearing your thoughts and perspectives.

[@jaminius]

“We’re gonna play tonight.” RIP

[@Shane-The-Pain]

Sooooo... did I miss something and they didn't play last week? I'm really fiending for my Chain Fix.

[@OfficialPizza]

@@Shane-The-Pain technical difficulties caused the stream to be cancelled

[@roticet]

I lost it at we did the math, its 400 million damage per round

[@RexTenomous]

I am looking forward to more Running the Game videos, but these campaign diaries are the highlight of my week! I'm really glad that you've decided to keep doing them. So valuable. So dramatic.

[@zacharywade4478]

It’s soo cool how all of this is playing out. Kudos to the hard work.

[@Phalcon777]

Love the Dairies. I love when matt gets things wrong because it feels so real too.

[@radicaledward2981]

YESSSSSSSSSSSS notifications for the campaign diary! Been so excited for this!

[@frontline989]

I’ll always appreciate the diaries since I can’t seem to get behind watching people play D&D but I do like to keep up with the campaign. I can’t help but wish for more RTG videos. That or some movie discussion videos. Give us something Matt!! 😭

[@frontline989]

​@@trequorThe RTG videos were what matt did in his free time as a hobby before he left Turtle Rock so if we're to wildly speculate Id say his work hours are going to the next kickstarter and prepping the stream among CEO duties while his desire to produce RTG videos on his own time has diminished due to now having everything fall on his shoulders. I can understand it. The YT account has taken a backseat to bigger priorities.

[@CheshireMadd]

As a whole, I super enjoyed last week's session! Scipio (spell?) also had a great line where he suggested to Boots 'be careful what he tells the Vile Silencer and, by extension, him'. Giving Lady Orozivaar to the Saphire Sky was BRILLIANT, and I loved Scipio's reaction when he saw her trussed up and blinded. While, yes, the Mind Killer is kind of a repeat of what happened with the Chameleon, it's not actually something I thought about until it was brought up in this video. I feel like it came up fairly naturally, and is a tiny bit of a different scenario, too. Thanks for sharing all of this with us :)

[@euansmith3699]

"Driving the person around like your personal Mech." :D

[@Jake-te4pl]

Last week's game was really good. It seems like the Chain is really building a foundation within Capitol. Thanks for sharing your D&D game with the world and for giving us these recaps. I'm excited to see what happens next in the story of the Chain.

[@fredfloyd693]

That was the first time I was able to actually able to tune into the stream (I've really only been able to use campaign diaries to keep up) but that is the most fun I've had watching/listening to D&D ever. I legit put my hand to my mouth in an attempt to not wake up my family at 1:00 am (I'm an east coast lad) because I was squealing at every single word that was said on that stream. TLDR; Colville you've made a really badass thing here

[@digitalbrentable]

Didn't they knock a hole into the lower level when they fought the Iron Golem? Does that not lie behind the locked door, and if so, have they not just freed the member of the Black Iron Pact that was shut in?

[@ScoffMathews]

I think she’s trapped inside a cylinder prismatic wall

[@Mike-gz8gy]

One of my favorite episodes. Just epic. Thank you for this, Matt!

[@steveharrison76]

Campaign diaries are also running the game videos, in a very real way. I love them. Thank you, sir, and thanks to your friends and MCDM. I got my kickstarter stuff a fortnight back... an amazing book and a kickass shirt. I have no complaints, my friend.

[@josuelservin2409]

I really loved Lady Orozivaar history with the sapphire sky especially when you read it to us in the stream, thanks for the ride Matt, is only getting better.

[@TheCruss32]

I absolutely love these campaign diaries.

[@Antipodeano]

Keep doing what you are doing, don't change a thing. Brilliant D&D worlds ahead of anything else out there imho.

[@johnnybigbones4955]

Nice advice with the secret wisdom saves for the possession.

[@TheOfficialMrsBeefy]

Wow great to see how many layers are moving about behind the scenes and in the players heads. By comparison everything I do seems so flat! I’ve had this same struggle between crawl and intrigue, and ended up taking the lazy route of two separate games. Really cool to see how they can come together, but for us it would take far more sessions

[@colewhite9290]

A fantastic diary as always! While I'm excited for more running the game, I always look forward to listening to these. Keep up the excellent content, and finish up Kingdoms and Warfare! 😃

[@Sorenzo]

It was SUPER watchable. It's great drama to see what the players propose and decide, and you played the NPC's in a very interesting way. The least watchable episodes are the ones with just combat and no dialogue. They're extremely slow-paced because the players spend a lot of time thinking or bantering or looking things up on their turn, and this makes you lose attention, and then you miss something when something finally happens, and then you gotta go back and we-watch. Dungeon crawling and politics are definitely much better than straight combat.

[@Plarzay]

The Mind Killer hanging out in the back of the possessed PC's head reminds me of the City of Brass arc in Rollplay Court of Swords in which Berg had Tulpa riding around in his mind.

[@WhatsUpGazpacho]

Just love this campaign and these diaries. I would have immediately gone for the emerald sky. Watching your diaries and *prepping my own campaign!*

[@hayatolynde]

Absolutely dope episode, Matt. So glad we're able to watch your games!

[@TwoToneShoes]

HERE EARLY FOR THAT MATT COLVILLE GOODNESS

[@HeathBromley]

Lady Orozivaar reminds me of a knight from the Green Order.

[@joebaker1]

Yes. That devotion to duty in the face of someone else's quest.

[@christophernorthcutt2571]

Thanks for the content. It answered some of my questions and gave great insight. Maybe the butcher and candlesticks shop are on Baker street...lol.

[@RVSAU169]

I loved last episode, people thinking gives me an opportunity to consider the situation aswell, helps a ton with immersion!

[@redmadhatter03]

The mind killer riding dormant but observing in one of the party's mind reminds me of the Hiver from Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

[@redmadhatter03]

OMG it got liked by Matt, lmao. Does this mean if they kill it while inside somebody's brain it leaves fragments of previous minds it possessed? *puts on tinfoil hat*

[@kojopilgrim9550]

Been waiting for this since Thursday 😂

[@chrishandy9172]

I love that some of the community don't understand how these campaign diaries are really running the game videos. These are the real world examples of the ideas you put forward in the running the game series. I find them to be much more informative than you might think.

[@btfx]

"We'll send you one email only... Vasiliy" This is a lot more spooky for someone named 'Vasiliy' than 'Tim' or 'Steve' or something...

[@btfx]

0:49

[@GrimBrotherIV]

Such a great episode!! Loved all of it.

[@alexitosworld]

I really liked the session! And IMO don't worry about how "watchable" it is, this stream has become the most entertaining DnD stream for me by far. A lot of it has to do with the time, I can watch 3h a week (at 1.75x :P) but not 5h or more :S Keep up the good work ^^ BTW, I think you mixed the part where Boots goes to the Saphire sky with the part when Cooper goes to grab Marcello. Boots went to the other world while the others where talking with Angel. Cooper went to grab Marcello after the long rest, when the dragonborn showed up "drunk" and Phill suggested the best solution :)

[@abeingofpureenergy]

I'm now convinced that you are the greatest DM I've ever seen

[@antoniorezik4072]

Really excited for tonight!... and this weekend, I'm running a campaign for two friends of mine in Matt's universe. The kicker is they are a 5th lvl spy duo working for the iron saint. They are going to gather information on the chain and the other powers of capital to report and maybe eliminate...

[@CheshireMadd]

That line of dialogue from Lady Orozivaar was freaking amazing

[@xxdragonxx5640]

I have recently found and binge watched your videos. Thanks for the running the game series, it has me very interested in D&D. I have wanted to play for years, but I have only ever found one group. The group I found seemed insulted that I wanted to join them. I understand now after watching several videos that I may have been asking to join in the middle of a campaign. With that said, If anyone has any way of helping me find a group that would be really cool. I do have a semi irregular work schedule and am a full time college student. I have already checked my college and there is no advertised D&D group. Thanks in advance!

[@passthemeeple]

I love the hunt for red October reference...and as usual...MC is off the hook great.

[@grantgravity_plus]

It was an incredible episode. I’m pumped for tonight

[@JackAsGaeilge]

"There's a godblind down there?" Call it by its proper name Angel. It's a No Chamber.

[@Dr_StrangeKill]

Just wanted to express how thankful I am that you've put up all of these videos. They are consistently great quality, well written, informative, and entertaining. Just started DMing for a small group of friends for the first time, and your videos have been both an encouragement and an inspiration. Thanks for all you do!

[@sindeon]

Matt I salute you , you are truly a man of culture to insert a red october reference in the first minute of your video. /hats off.

[@lukemcdaniel6545]

This was very fun to watch live.

[@boriskourt]

Last week was one of the best sessions to watch.

[@ingratitude]

"We'll find out what happens with the mind killer." Fear is the mind-killer.

[@LotharTheFellhanded]

How come none of the players have bothered to try to chisel up the melted gold on the floor? There’s gold on them thar floors?

[@magmatoad7235]

Hey Matt, would you say that the rate at which you are improving as a dm has accelerated since you’ve started this channel?

[@mcolville]

Nope. I think my rate of improvement is tied pretty closely to the frequency with which I DM.

[@thelastspartanS117]

I love this show so much

[@jonstachon4921]

Great video. Well done!

[@vickyradcliffe4019]

Please don't think that the last episode of The Chain was not very watchable - it really was. It's fascinating to see the players wrestle with being their characters, and even more so when so much is at stake. Politics, fighting, dungeon crawling, whatever is thrown at them, it's the players and how they respond to your story that makes this such a great series and if it takes them hours to work out the next move that's absolutely OK with me.

[@irontemplar6222]

Ok... I know I'm just a two bit DM here. However, If the persuasion roll is superfluous, and it doesn't matter what the players roll. It's going to fail anyway. You shouldn't have them roll in that case. Just rp it from beginning to end. Because from the players perspective. It feels like you have already decided that their plan will fail, and your letting them roll for no other reason than to make them think they have agency in this, and if their skills are good enough, or their speech in the best. They will succeed.

[@ivandragovic5958]

Why didn’t combat start? How did they have enough time to talk to other groups without her trying to leave?

[@simongotborg3866]

I think the session was very watchable. Probably my favourite one yet.

[@Lord-Professor]

yknow I just thought of another way the Chain could have gotten rid of Lady Irrozivar without the use of the Godblind: Get one of the characters to make a prayer to Relg, and offer her soul as a sacrifice. This way, her soul is likely incapable of being resurrected, AND it being claimed by Relg may prevent her soul from telling the church what happened.

[@romantheflash]

Oh gosh, I thought that it was gonna be combat next session. This is so much more devious.

[@bekkayya]

These are fantastic you must continue.

[@bekkayya]

"if we could just cut that out ...somehow...." yeah okay

[@user-ki9km7xo5p]

IM TRYING TO SLEEP MAT COME ON

[@anthonyewolf]

I'm going to be honest, The Devil's Work isn't fun to "watch" if you like the tactics, but it's super fun to listen to for someone like me who loves the politics. This is great

[@SkurgeOfCaprica]

It's okay to have the campaign diary dumps. We enjoy them! But am looking forward to more running the game

[@fennec812]

Catching up on these. I’m a bit confused as to why, when trying to convince Lady Orozivaar, the Chain seems to have tried to push the guilt for the war onto her. I suppose that strong arming might be a bit more in character for the Chain. But it seems like they’d have seen more success (or not!) if they’d framed the argument better. “Men will die if the truth leaks, and while Capital bleeds itself dry, the Pact will make their move. Is that something your Order could condone? Your god could condone? We ARE willing to kill you, not for our sake, but for the sake of all our futures. What are you willing to do for the good of the people?” Probably a lie. Maybe sophistry. And maybe she’d still have walked off and things would have went exactly the same way. I just think using her convictions might have panned out better than basically threatening her. Hindsight is 20/20 though. Great stuff! Thanks for all you do and to the players for being fun to watch!

[@sillyking1991]

they probably didn't think of that framing. you have to remember that people often blame the instigating cause of something as its ultimate cause. for example: if someone places a bob in the city, and you accidentally set it off trying to disarm it. there are people that will blame *you*. or at the very least try to push some of the blame onto you. its ridiculous when you put it like that but its nature.

[@tennesseeponderer3146]

So king is definitely the possessed one

[@TheJPKaram]

I love the campaign, the storyline and the way it’s ran is thrilling and fascinating. Watching the game isn’t as entertaining as critical role but this is real dnd and the story is and game is amazing

[@tideoftime]

20:20 "...never read a Ravenloft anything..." Thank god I wasn't drinking anything or I might have choked... lol! (JK... though I find it amazing that an old-schooler like yourself never have read/browsed through *any* Ravenloft stuff just... amazing... Now, never had *run* it, sure -- I've been playing for 35+ years and there are entire settings I've never read, proper/ran, but at least browsed through/read a few pages here and there. But *never* read anything Ravenloft? Wow... lol ;) )

[@hansolav5924]

fairy fire's function is to reveal(outline) what cannot be seen. I utterly fail to see why any creature that does not spend it's not-attacking time in another dimension should fail to be affected. I would read the text as 'outlining creatures that Cannot Be Seen'. 'invisible' may refer to things one cannot see, rather than things affected by the spell or related state. kinda curious the spell was not made to be an aoe, as encountering one creature one cannot see might often involve others nearby. a step to keep things from becoming too easy, I suspect. :)

[@phantomspcmn]

Lindsay Ellis puts out a 1 hr 10 min video on the SAME DAY as a 40 min Matt Colville campaign diary? Is it my birthday?

[@grahamcarpenter691]

phantomspcmn I think Matt mentioned that he invited Jenny Nicholson over for a one shot at some point

[@NathanPops]

"One ping only" great reference

[@killazaawl]

i'm somehow lost in the count, did you do episode 25 this week? i don't know how twitch works, but i used to see the live stream recording in there, before the edited version got uploaded.

[@Xsuh]

Wait, I thought these were two different planes. Or like, Ringwell is a demiplane or something. A manifold, I think they're called in your game.

[@Shane-The-Pain]

Hi! :) Love you guys and the great work you do. Ummm, where's my stream? /nervous scratching

[@bravedom2228]

If I ever play in a campaign like this, I think I'm going to make a knowledge clerc/Inquisitive rogue to play.

[@PANCAKEMINEZZ]

Someone says Chainsword and your thoughts don't immediately go to Warhammer 40k... For shame, says I! The local Inquisitor will hear of this.

[@nerd_mus]

Count Rodan´s Rod, I like the ring of it

[@ivandragovic5958]

When did we learn about Lady Violeta?

[@rocketforthree4479]

Could any one help me out please? I can't find the video from r this week's stream. It doesn't appear to be on Twitch. Idk if I'm missing something or losing my mind.

[@joesayre7267]

I so want Angel to be the ultimate villain.